University of Minnesota, Morris
EN-13: Community Stakeholder Engagement

The University of Minnesota, Morris convenes the Chancellor's Advisory Council (CAC). The CAC meets during the year to advise the Chancellor and campus regarding campus strategy, operations and community engagement. The CAC has broad representation from local and regional stakeholders. Morris is also home to the Center for Small Towns. CST works with stakeholders in the west central Minnesota region. CST also has a Advisory Committee with members from diverse areas of community life -- from education to media to regional development groups. CST engages Morris students with projects that are defined by community members and that support building more vibrant and prosperous rural communities.

Some examples: Katie Winter ’15, partnered with the Sustainable Tourism and Resilient Communities portion of the Southwest Regional Sustainable Development Partnership through the University of Minnesota Extension to create a showcase event for local artists. Winter worked with Extension employee David Fluegel, and helped to put together the two part series, Local Color that brought together community members and local artists. Charlie Diamond ’15, helped gather information on funding sources for parks, pools, and playgrounds in small towns throughout Minnesota. Diamond collaborated with Jacki Anderson, Emily Zandt, and Erin Smith, from the Upper Minnesota Valley Regional Development Commission to better understand how communities can fund, maintain, and preserve their community recreation space. Sam Gill ’16, and the Morris Area Chamber of Commerce organized and put together the Non-Profit Community Expo, and Prairie Pioneer days - both staples of the community event calendar. Gill was excited to be able to help promote and improve events that bring the community together and help create the unique community atmosphere in Morris. Benjamin Osmand ’15, was involved organizing Green Island, Wadena’s new community tourism project. Green Island is a partially public space that was once a 60 acre family farm that has been transformed back into its original forested form. The community aims to boost tourism and better stimulate the area’s economy with attraction that preserves their natural land and resources. Ricky Rojas ’16 worked with UMM Professor Arne Kildegard to gather and analyze data on energy use at Minnesota’s rural electric cooperatives.Professor Kildegaard and Rojas created a regression model that helps to analyze the feasibility of different sustainable options at each rural electric cooperative. The pair’s goal is to create positive and environmentally friendly options at the cooperatives throughout rural Minnesota.

More information about CST projects can be found here: http://www.morris.umn.edu/cst/studentproject/